true story or nokia pr stunt. let us know. >> thanks for watching, everybody. "closing bell" is coming up next. looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. also, happy halloween, everybody. go do some spooky stuff. hi, everybody. we enter the final stretch. welcome to the closing bell. i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. final hour of the trading for the month of october. spooky, spooky day today. >> happy halloween. just a fair warning, we are on such a sugar high today. this has been anything but a scary market this month. we're going to bring home the final tallies for october. a lot more in today's show. look at this. they built this chart to show you the month to date gains for the major averages. the dow up 3.2%. nasdaq up more than 4%. we've had a very good month on

what is typically a pretty tough time of the year for the stock market. we have a scary moment for facebook. its cfo offering up the fact that teens may be losing interest in the site. i could have told you that. in my household, we call it fogey book. the stock has since recovered after that bombshell. noted technology investor dan niles now out of facebook. remember, he told you. >> so smart on this stock. >> he bought it below $20 a share. this week he sold all of his holdings in facebook. why? and should you be out of facebook as well? what's he fwoigoing to do with money? >> we'll talk about it. two big ceo interviews coming your way. bob benmosche. lots to get into including how it may be adjusting to the new health care law with its thousands of employees. also sprint ceo, dan hesse.

mobility a huge issue. if there may be more consolidation in the telecom industry. softbank acquired 80% of sprint. >> trying to upgrade the spectrum for them. then on this halloween, easily the scariest, most horrifying story we can find. this morgan stanley report that says the world is running out of wine. >> what? >> i can hear our viewers now. >> what? [ screaming ] >> yes, we hear you, viewers. we'll have that story coming up a little bit later on "closing bell." won't we, maria? >> we will. let's check the markets as we approach this final hour for the month. dow jones industrial average off the highs down in negative territory, seven points. 15,611. strong october. the month very strong. we're ending on a mixed note. nasdaq composite actually higher today. although it, too, is coming off of the highs of the day.

3932. s&p 500 where we are looking at a fraction on the upside. quarter point. 1763. steady moves. >> very steady moves. on this halloween the man they call sugar daddy. here's bob pisani with a look at today's action. >> running out of wine. not at my house. it's not going to happen at my house, william. come on over. >> you're one of the reasons the world is running out of wine. >> i'll prove it to you. why am i prattling on about wine? put up the stock market here. you can't keep the market down. there was concerns all day the fed hadn't ruled out tapering.

finally on the earnings front, bill and maria. here's the numbers. 71% through the earnings season. 5.3% increase in earnings. that's enough for another record high. the revenues modest. up 4%. q-4. remember, two weeks ago i said it was at 10%. there's a fear they're going to lower the numbers. it really hasn't happened. 7.7%. i predict that will end up 4% to

6% before it's all over. q-4 will be another record earnings quarter for stocks as well. back to you. >> thanks so much. joining us now on our "closing bell exchange," heather hughes. cnbc contributor richard bernstein. and our own rick santelli. good to see you, everybody. steven, let me ask you, we had a strong month. what do you expect at year end? >> i think it's going to be choppy. i might we could be flightish into the end of the year. the market is fairly valued. full valued is a loaded term. i think fairly valued right now. i think we're exposed to equities. it becomes more of an active management -- earnings are coming in kind of choppy, kind of mixed. revenue really hit and miss.

i think revenue is far more important. understanding both the credit and equity side -- it's a global game. but right now it could be choppy. >> heather, you guys have been skittish about this market for a little while. here we are at all-time highs. without a 10% correction for a long time here. >> you're right. i mean, there is broad market participation across the bard it looks like in october. no one's aggressively shorting this market. or taking any profits. but as you stated, the pullbacks seem to be too mild or somewhat shallow to see some sort of buy on the dip mentality. >> what do you do? >> the trend of the adviser is to say, hey, look what happened in may when you look at bonds. 10-years pulled back again. they're saying, all right. maybe this is our second chance to reallocate from bonds to stocks or cash again. you know, fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, they're saying,

okay, let's look at our bond holdings again. >> what do you think, richard bernstein? give us the backdrop of the fundamentals here. are we going into the fourth quarter weaker than we would have wanted given the shutdown? what are you expecting for year end as well? >> well, maria, you raise a very good point. because the shutdown certainly slowed the economy. it's going to skew the data. it's going to be great opaqueness to the data over the next month or so. i think the important thing to remember is although there was damage done to the economy, and we could argue how much or how little, there was damage done to the economy. the important point is it's not irreparable. as washington gets out of the way, we will see the private sector begin to work its way back. we'll see some of those trends we saw establish themselves in terms of improving economy before the shutdown, we think those trends are going to come back again. >> will washington ever get out of the way? i hope so. they're certainly not off the calendar yet. we'll see if we go through the

same debacle again in february. >> i think you agree with that, rick santelli. some of the economic data we're getting -- you want them out of the way, don't you? >> listen. it all depends on what your definition of out of the way is. i would like to address mr. bernstein's comment. i'm not seeing chicago is going to reflect the entire country or national ism. when you consider the polling for today's -- early october to the 24th of october, it certainly didn't seem -- people working in the field gathering this data for that service that they thought the shutdown impacted at least what they were seeing in chicago. that said -- go ahead. >> i was going to say, if that's true and it didn't affect the economy, that just makes me happier. my point was i would expect to see more opaqueness but that opaqueness is there, all the better. that's great. >> mr. bernstein, another thing.

i don't mean to go to a nasty topic. it's basically the one year anniversary of sandy. that was a horrible thing. my sympathies for many that got hit again in the fire. but when you look at the fact that when these things happen, the government, even though it took long, $65 billion? that's three times the amount, basically, they say the slowdown, $20 billion to $25 billion. all i'm saying is things like hurricane or storms happen, we don't look at every single piece of data under that context. i think we need to be kind of fair about it. the other thing -- >> absolutely. very fair point, rick. >> yesterday 247 was the low yield for the 10-year on an intraday basis. that is an absolute picture perfect retracement of 136 basis point runup from may to september for a 10-year. heather hughes, it might be a great time to do some allocating. because maybe the rally in treasuries could be over as that

yield test showed us yesterday. >> you have the blessing of mr. rick santelli. >> thank you all for joining us today with your thoughts on this market, including you, mr. bernstein. >> thank you. >> 50 minutes left in the trading session. slight bias to the downside. in fact, the dow was positive a moment ago. down 8 1/2 points right now. up next, sprint warning of high customer -- we'll talk with ceo dan hesse. he plans to turn that around. plus will we see more consolidation in the industry? stay tuned. rock star investor dan niles just made a huge profit on facebook. bought shares below 20 earlier this year then sold his entire stake over the last two days following a big gain. why did he sell? maybe more importantly, is he planning to use the profits to buy, oh, twitter? he'll join us exclusively as well.

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market down six points on the dow. over to dominic chu. >> check out shares of vodafone. spiking toward session highs. this on reports that at&t could be looking into putting at least ground work into a possible deal to acquire vodafone sometime in the future. again, unconfirmed reports from other media sources for this particular move. still, it's making the stock shoot higher toward those session highs. again, bill, check out those vodafone shares as we head towards the "closing bell." >> just as we're getting ready to ask dan hesse about further consolidation in his industry. good timing on that one. google is holding a highly anticipated android event today. josh lipton is at that event in san francisco. he's got details. josh? >> reporter: yeah, bill, here in san francisco, google unveiling this morning its new smartphone. the nexus 5.

let me give you guys the specs. it's a five inch display. weighs 130 grams. it's running a qualcomm snap dragon 800 processor, means it's the most powerful nexus phone yet. improved camera. smarter phone tiler. price $349 without a contract. it's available today on google play in ten countries, available at sprint, t-mobile, amazon and best buy in the coming weeks. it is halloween, maria. i don't know if you're a fan of the kitc-kat candy bar. that's the name they're giving it. we had ice cream sandwich. jelly bean. now kitkat. the point, keep expanding its footprint. they tell us kitkat uses less memory than jelly bean. a new operating system, but it's running on entry level phones. the broader purpose here, google is saying, is to reach the next 1 billion people. guys, back to you. >> love it, josh.

thank you so much. good name. >> where are we? 45 minutes left in the trading session here. the dow wants to come back. little volatility at the close. down just a point and change on the industrial average. closing out a very strong month. almost a 4% gain for the dow. 5% gain for the s&p just this month. also going to check on gold. what's behind this recent slide? seema mody will be explaining why a sudden shift in india may be playing a pretty good role in the selloff. be afraid. be very afraid. mike myers, freddy krueger. just three of the scariest horror movie villains of all time. the scariest thing you may see all day is this new report from morgan stanley. yes, it's true. the world is running out of wine, everybody. details behind that horrifying headline, later on "closing bell."

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gold prices falling below a key technical level today. seema mody explains why gold's recent trouble could have to do with india and demand. >> late october is when we typically see consumers in india flock to their local gold shops to stock up on jewelry and gold coins. but analysts are saying this year, demand might not be as strong. india's slow economy, depreciating rupee and rise in inflation. add to that a high import tax on gold makes it even more expensive for indians to buy gold in rupee terms. traders say that's concerning

given that india is the biggest buyer of gold, making up 20% of world's consumption. typically gold shares rise 2% around the volley. but this year we aren't seeing that big move in gold. according to the local merchants i spoke to in new delhi and mumbai, they're considering alternatives like silver. silver won't be able to fully replace gold's important role in weddings, religious events and festivals. experpts say regardless of the current state of the economy india will always have an insatiable appetite for the shiny yellow metal. demand just might be lackluster this holiday season, maria. >> thank you so much, seema. stay right there. we want to bring in a pair of gold experts for their take. >> dennis gartman. he's been long gold. paul sachs has been bearish. dennis, you'r long call on gold is that based on supply/demand.

outlook on inflation? all of the above? what makes you like gold at these levels? >> first of all, i've never been e namered of gold. i never really liked gold. gold bugs don't like me. there are times i denigrate gold rather openly. but i think everybody has to have a bit of gold in their portfolio. i like gold in terms of yen, not in terms of dollars. it's predicated upon the fact the bank of japan has made it abundantly clear under abe-nomics -- >> gogold in dollars, i really could care less about it. i have been bullish of gold for a long time. again, it's in yen terms. that's rather different. >> paul. >> i agree and disagree with my esteemed guest. we agree it is important to have some degree of gold exposure in your portfolio. to me it sounds like he's combining two trades. he's buying gold and selling dollars. then buying dollars and selling

yen. limiting your exposure to gold isn't interesting to me especially in dollar terms. i do see major, major head winds heading for gold right now. if you're trading gold short term you're basically engaging in this game of when the qe tapering will come. in three months? six months? is it delayed? coming sooner or later? most market participants do think it's coming. if it is, then you have to have a bearish mind set for gold. it's in a bear market. it's a very, very dangerous place to try to find a bottom and catch a falling knife. >> go ahead, dennis. >> i won't argue with that at all. for the past, what, 17 or 18 months every low in gold in dollar terms is lower. every high is lower. it really has been a bear market. anybody who's owned gold in the last 18 months in dollar terms has an egregiously heavy loss. as we say, has some splaining to do. at least in terms of yen you haven't lost much money. down 3%, 4%, 5%.

in dollar terms down 25%. >> we all know gold has been in a huge bull market for the last ten years. doesn't that have an impact on demand in countries like india? prices get to be so high consumers can't afford gold like they could ten years ago. >> some countries they would. but in a country like india that has such a strong affinity for an appreciating asset like gold demand continues to be strong. we might be seeing a small hiccup in indian demand. it has to do with the current state of the economy. long term you still have a lot of gurus who say india will continue to invest in this asset. >> we'll leave it there. thanks, everybody. >> thank you. thanks for having me on. we want to talk about sprint, soft bank of japan took an 80% stake in that company. sprint reported its first quarterly profits since 2007. >> still, that stock is down 2.5% over the last two days as investors show concern about the

loss of sub skrscribers that th itemized in that report. the company's ability to speed up its net worth, they bought clear wire to do something about that. even soft bank is saying it's going to take a year or two to get that thing turned around and up to speed. >> joining us exclusively on the telephone, ceo dan hesse. >> good to be here. >> we just looked at a chart of your stock. i want to point out that the returns, actually, are even better. because you had that payout from soft bank which i want you to explain in a moment. the ceo of soft bank has said the turnaround is going to take one to two years. tell us where you are in terms of turning things around, the immediate, long term goals. what does this company look like at the end of this turnaround versus competitors? >> yesterday we made a big announcement -- what we announced was this quarter we're going to launch a new service that's two times faster than 4g.

peak speed in the range of 50 megabits per second. because of the big investment that we made -- allows us to go four times as fast as, if you will, today's 4g lte service within a year. six times as fast within two years. it takes a time to buildout that network. i think that's what he's referring to. we are behind in modernizing our network. we're making a lot of progress. we said we'd have 200 million by the end of the year. we're launching it in quarter in five cities. including new york, chicago and l.a. five new devices that will work on it. that's the key to our turnaround

is a superior network. >> dan, lots of competition. we all know that. you've lost ground to some of your competitors there. we were going to ask you about your thoughts on potential consolidation down the road in your industry. now we're hearing this bloomberg report that says that at&t may be eyeing vodoafone as a possibe acquisition target. what do you think of that? how much more competition can you take out there? >> it is a competitive industry. i can't comment nor do i know anything about at&t's plan to -- with vodafone or with any other potential partner. but i do believe that over the long term, there will be more consolidation in the wireless industry. because it is an industry of scale. >> so the mobility industry, the whole mobility of 6 billion mobile phones on the planet versus a billion pcs, is this what's behind this consolidation?

talk to us about the opportunity within this space. >> you have ten mobile phones being manufactured each and every day, for every baby boomer born. that's just phones. the real opportunity of growth in this industry is beyond phones. it's the machine to machine. internet of things. 25 billion of these by 2015. basically a wireless chip in everything. a wireless chip in your refrigerator, your tv, your tish wa -- dishwasher, car. the opportunity in wireless goes way beyond phones to you will have almost everything you can imagine with a wireless chip in it. >> fascinating. >> it is. dan, i want to switch gears for just a moment here. the nsa has asked your company for information on millions of customers. what do you do with that? we're all so sensitive to the issue of privacy now.

the ability to spy -- of the governments around the world to spy on allied forces. you know, enemies, whatever. where do you stand on providing that kind of information to the federal government? >> we're a leader in protecting our customers' privacy. in that we make it very clear how we're going to use their information and their data. and, for example, we launched a new advertising service recently where customers have to -- they need to opt in for us to be able to use any of their personal information. that being said, we comply with the law. if we have a legal request for data, we do comply with u.s. law. >> the health care law, what can you tell us in terms of your own move and how you will adjust things as a result of the changing landscape with obama care? have you made any changes at sprint? >> we have not yet. we are monitoring developments closely.

we provide, if you will, good health care services to our employees. and we're monitoring the situation closely. >> you know, i thought -- i thought that this investment from soft bank -- it exposes you to all the companies soft bank is invested in. internet companies. you want to talk a bit about what you're going to do with this 80% investment by soft bank and what kind of opportunities you see as a result of it? >> the first thing, the cash injection from soft bank allowed us to buy clear wire which i alluded to earlier. but take a look at this soft bank wireless. arguably the best performing wireless company in the world, what soft bank has been able to do in japan. we have a tremendous amount we can learn from them. we get together with management teams. share best practices and learn from them on a regular basis. on the internet side, you're exactly right. they have investments in over

1,000 internet companies. think of where wireless networks are going, it really is, if you will, an internet enabler. primarily connections to the internet. not only knowledge of how internet companies are thinking, but it's the relationships, the ecosystem and what have you that they bring to the table that we think will be a great asset to us moving forward. >> all right. dan, good to have you on the program. we so appreciate it. we wanted to see you in person. we had some technical issues. >> ironically, we have to use telecom. >> we have to use the phones. there we go. >> it's those land lines. >> thank you, dan. see you soon. >> take care. thank you. happy halloween. >> you, too. heading toward the close. the market has been fluctuating. down a little bit at the moment. down 23 point on the dow industrial. as we close out, pretty strong month for the major averages here in the united states. president obama, at first he compared the health care website problems with glitches apple had with its operating system.

yesterday he blamed bad apple insurance companies for people complaining that they like their insurance, but couldn't keep it despite his promises. he's got something about apples right now. was that a fair thing to say about insurance companies, by the way? we're going to look into that coming up. later, aig ceo bob ben mmose will be here. what aig is doing differently through the obama care launch. back in a moment on "closing bell." stay with us. the american dream is of a better future, a confident retirement. those dreams, there's just no way we're going to let them die. ♪ like they helped millions of others. by listening. planning. working one on one. that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. that's how ameriprise puts more within reach.

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you saw it live on cnbc yesterday. the president delivering the speech in boston. the backlash on obama care and rollout with the website problems. based on a new nbc news "wall street journal" poll he needs to sway public opinion on that issue. eamonjavers has details. >> we were looking ahead to this poll which we knew at the time the president was speaking was getting set to come out. 6:30 last night. the poll shows that this health care debacle has really taken a

toll on the president politically. take a look at his approval numbers, first of all. he's been sliding in terms of job approval rating now. approved, 42%. disapproved, 51%. that's a problem politically for the administration going forward. now look at the confidence in the health care law overall. what you see there is only 9% of people say they're more confident. less confident, 40%. that's a whopping spread there, the difference between 9% and 40%. no change, 50%. you can assume a lot of those people are the president's base and others who are just dead set against the health care law altogether. then look at this question of whether or not people are paying attention to the health care law and the coverage of it. the total of people who responded yes, they're paying attention, 83% are paying attention. why does that matter? that matters because the president is having a bad day right at a time when people are watching. that's going to play into that popularity number we saw sagging

in the first graphic. some very bad news here politically for the white house. that's going to translate into their ability to get stuff done here in washington. they're going to have to find a way to start to turn around the narrative on this. for them, brass tax are going to be where it's at. we've got to fix the technology, got to fix the processes. then they can start to turn around the political perception of all that. >> thanks very much. there has been some backlash at the white house from americans who are being forced out of their inexpensive plans with limited coverage, even though the president assured the country that people could actually keep their plans if they liked them. now, yesterday president obama had this explanation. >> there are a number of americans, fewer than 5% of americans, who've got cut rate plans that don't offer real financial protection in the event of a serious illness or an accident. remember, before the affordable care act, these bad apple insurers had free reign. every single year to limit the

care you received or use minor pre-existing conditions to jack up your premiums. or bill you into bankruptcy. this wasn't just bad for those folks who had these policies, it was bad for all of us. >> bad apple. that's the operative term there. were they really bad apples, those insurance companies? even though they seemed to like those plans, the customers liked the plans that were being offered? let's talk about where this stands right now. howard dean is back with us. of course, former governor of vermont. now cnbc contributor among other things. joe michaels is pahas represent many major insurance companies. good to see you both. thank you for joining us. howard, what about -- is the president unfairly maybe even disingenuously throwing these insurance companies under the bus for offering an insurance plan because people like them? >> he called them substandard.

>> they are substandard. here's the fact. we did most of this 20 years ago. when we went to community rating, golden rule, for example, was taking 50% of every dollar out of everybody's insurance payment and spending it on things other than health care. they left the state because they couldn't meet our standards. not only that, they routinely removed people's health insurance after they got sick. so the president is true. this is true, what the president said yesterday about this. there are some insurance companies who were taking more than they should have, than most insurance companies do, most well run insurance companies. they were all cutting off people's insurance once they got sick. if you never get sick, of course you want your cheap policy. the problem is is when you do get sick on a policy like this, you're screwed. i think the president was right, what he said yesterday. >> joe, what about that? are insurance companies bad apples for selling inexpensive plans for people? >> they were meeting demands of the marketplace that existed at that time. these were products that were rated and offered benefits that

were in compliance with law. those policies obviously will now have to change as a result of the affordable care act. >> what about governor dean's contention that, i mean, they were substandard? they're a good policy until you ironically get sick. then either your premium goes sky high or your policy is canceled. is that fair? people don't realize that until they actually need the product. >> this suggests that the policies were totally unregulated. insurance policies are regulated by state insurance departments and state insurance laws that define benefits, rates, as well as bases for termination. i think it is a bit of an overstatement to say that the plans were substandard or could be terminated at any time. >> how about the fact that all these people are coming on the air saying they used to pay $200. now they have to pay $600. they have all this stuff they don't need. i mean, i thought it was funny

when congress asked kathleen sebelius, when was the last time you heard of a man giving birth? why are we forcing men to take on prenatal and pregnancy coverage? they don't need it and they don't want to pay this extra. >> lots of people don't think they need anything. the trouble is, and i believe in community rating which is what we did here 20 years ago. what that means is we're all in this together. i think that's what the affordable care act does. you had aetna, for example, that in three periods cut 350,000 people off their health insurance because they were sick. yeah. you could say i agree, these were all legal. now they're not legal anymore. what the president has done with the affordable care act is tighten up insurance standards so those kinds of things don't happen to people anymore. it is true. there are a few people that will pay more. most will not, though. people whose bills go from $200 to $600, either they can afford them or they're going to get tax subsidies and they're not going to have to pay that much.

>> what about joe's contention we're oversimplifying this thing about insurance companies dropping people and policies because they got sick? it's more nuanced than that, isn't it? >> it's not. don't forget, i was a practicing physician. i saw that happen. i saw a young woman come in who had a very serious disease. wasn't able to renew her insurance the following may. >> what do you think, joe? >> quite frankly what's going on now is termination of policies not because of health status reasons, but because of the need to move to a new affordable care act policy. that's what's motivating it. there is no bases to discriminate on the basis of health status when these insurers terminate the current coverag coverages. >> here's an e-mail from a viewer, howard. where does the federal government get any authority at all to regulate insurance companies and products? it's not mentioned in the constitution and the tenth amendment reserves the power to

the state. the supposed bad apple insurance plans were all regulated by the states in which they were offered. the fed should have no say about this. this is from a viewer. >> yeah. i understand. the irony of all this is, in fact, the fed actually don't have that much power. where they have the power is to give by and large republican governors refused to put exchanges in their states for political reasons. that gave the federal government the ability to essentially regulate their insurance market for anybody who went on the exchange. now, the insurance market for people who do not go on the exchange is not regulated. any better than it was before. but it is for those who go on the exchange. that, oddly enough, was a result of the republicans refusing to participate. >> all right. we got to go at this point. wish we had more time. good discussion, though. thank you both. >> my pleasure. an increasing number of republican senators are threatening to hold up janet yellen's nomination to become the next fed chairman. tyler mathisen. >> it's getting fascinating down in washington on the story of yellen's nomination. senator tim johnson, the

democrat who runs the senate banking committee announced today he intends to move her nomination swiftly through his key committee. those hearings begin about the middle of the month. meanwhile, two very prominent republican senators, mr. mccain of arizona, mr. lindsey graham of south carolina, have said they intend to put a hold on yellen's nomination until the administration putting forward individuals to testify regarding the tragedy in benghazi a year or so ago. they specifically want people who were survivors of that benghazi attack to testify. the administration has resisted that, saying that those individuals are probably going to have to testify at criminal trials, and that congressional testimony might jeopardize that testimony at trial and might jeopardize their personal safety. the yellen nomination potentially subject to a hold that could only be overcome if 60 senators go along with that.

of course, the democrats only have 55 seats. that after cory booker was sworn in today. >> ty, thank you so much. >> politics by committee. let's see. 43 past the hour. 17 minutes left in the trading session here with the dow down 15 points on what has been a strong month for the u.s. markets. on this halloween, you'll see plenty of kids and adults in costume. but up next, our dominic chu has a spooky tale of stocks in disguise. you think you're buying one kind of a company, but really you're getting something entirely different. >> i love this story. after the bell -- ♪ >> it is scarier than a classic halloween horror movie. the world may be running out of wine. >> what? >> how is this possible? now something to whine about. details next on "closing bell." back in a moment.

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welcome back. it's not just kids taking candy in disguise this halloween. sometimes you think you're invested in one company but you're really getting another. >> how is that possible, dominic

chu? you're looking at some of the best corporate costumes out there right now. >> we've got to be in the spirit of halloween. we're getting ready for all those trick-or-treaters. here's a couple stocks where you think you're getting one company but the business is predomina predominantly something else. the first company is smucker's. you think about jam. jelly. maybe even peanut butter. but the reality for smucker's is that over the course of the past year it's become much more of a coffee company. they own folger's. they distribute dunkin donuts coffee beans and ground coffee in your grocery store. another one linked to it is, of course, dunkin donuts. that's our next mystery stock. it's in costume. with dunkin donuts, the majority of their sales come now from coffee.

again, these two companies, remember, when you're investing. do some homework. dunk dunk dunkin donuts a coffee shop. with smucker's, all about folger's. >> it's brand creep. mcdonald's going to sell coffee in stores. starbucks selling food like panera bread. nobody wants to be themselves anywhere. they want to be somebody else. >> looking for revenue wherever they can get it. about ten minutes left. the dow is down 20 points. let's face it. most kids just don't like healthy treats. >> mine tastes like broccoli. >> it's like the worst thing i've ever tasted. >> what about artichoke butter cups? >> i threw up. >> you threw up? okay. >> that's nice.

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welcome back. ten minutes from the final closing bell of october, bill. >> yes, it is, maria. >> things have worsened, by the way. you mentioned the -- >> a lot of stock for sale especially in oil, we are told. energy seeing weakness. joining us with thoughts on the market, marian bartels with merrill lynch wealth management. kevin mon. nice are you feeling festive about this stock market? >> i'm loving the stock market. i told clients back in july to increase equity allocation, reduce fixed income, i think even be yields down here about 2.5 you can still reduce and add to equities. i think the markets continue to go up into year end. the returns are great. pension funds only 35% equities. totally missing this. probably have to review their asset allocation.

looking out instead of just to year end, we're forecasting the markets can go up another 10% or above 1900 into next year. >> just by the end of the year? >> no. next year. so going 12 months out. another 10%. >> what about you? are you as bullish? >> we're bullish. i see large caps going up another 3% in the fourth quarter. small caps a little more. emerging markets like europe and germany we like as well for the fourth quarter. leading into 2014 with all the nonsense in washington could see a volatile first two months of next year. if vjanuary sets the tone for te trading year 2014 could be quite volatile. >> more budget talks that have to be rectified by the middle of january. the fed could be tapering by march. >> here's the thing. the headlines have been a trick all year. and the markets have been a treat. so the headlines have been giving you the opportunity to get into the market. >> you've been waiting all day to say that. >> i've been dying to say that. >> that is hilarious! is it all because of the fed.

is it because street money and interest rate story they're at rock bottom levels or are you actually looking at fundamentals? fundamentals, as kevin noted, we've got this upset. companies and individuals are sitting on cash. >> let's say the markets are fairly valued. when you compare them to bonds they're extremely cheap. really the asset class that is expensive is bonds. we like the equity market. we are encouraging clients to seek opportunity outside the united states. particularly in europe we're finding still great values. dividend yields still above bond yields and select opportunities within the emerging markets. >> quickly, you like industrials here. is that what you're buying? >> yeah. i think we like sectors now that benefit from a rising interest rate environment. interest rates are likely not to rise in the first half of 2014. by the second half you should start to see that creep up. >> thank you so much. >> happy halloween. thank you very much. for bringing the boa along. >> that's right. it's halloween. we're coming back with the closing countdown to end out this strong month. facebook shares up on fire.

up nearly 100% since late july. technology investor dan niles thinks it's time to get out. sold an entire stake this week after buying the stom below $20 a share earlier this year. he knew the right time to get in. is he correct that now is the time to get out? you're watching the "closing bell" on cnbc, first in business worldwide.

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heading toward the close as we put the books closed for the month of october. here's the story. i mean, stellar gains for all three of the major averages. the best performer, the s&p, with a gain of about 4.5% for the month. nasdaq, technology stocks up 4% for the month. and the dow the laggard, still a gain of about 3% for the month. keith bliss, with all the head winds we faced this month, we still have big gains. >> i like the way you call the dow the laggard. >> yeah. 3%. >> it is. yeah. listen, government shutdown, no problem. problems with the health care, no problem. weaker economic data, the trajectory starting to slow down, no problem. >> the fed trumps all of that. >> it really does. it's been that way for the last year. anybody that thought that this market, per se, from a day-to-day basis was trading on fundamentals has been fooled. especially the people who've been trying to short this market the whole time. >> as long as the fed is on the job, you'd be investing here?

>> i would be putting some money to work intelligently and in precise locations. i absolutely would not be shorting. >> all right. there you are. keith, thanks very much. we close out a strong october on top of a strong september. what will november bring? we'll find out starting tomorrow. first, the second hour of the "closing bell w" with maria bartiromo. i'll see you tomorrow. and it is 4:00 on wall street. do you know where your money is? hi, everybody. welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo. we're closing out what has been a terrific month for the bulls. closing on the downside. pretty good acceleration of selling in the final hour here. take a look at where we're finishing the day. ten minutes before the close we learned there was almost a billion dollars of stock for sale. that certainly has materialized on the downside for this market as we settle out at 4:00. dow tonight down 63 points, half half a percent at 15,554. we saw a number of energy stos